Community

Partners

Rural Centers for Writing in College, Career, and Community

The Centers for Writing in College, Career, and Community (CWCCC) involve a consortium of higher education institutions led by Missouri State University. The consortium includes higher education institutions, high schools, and other partners in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and South Carolina. Each of the CWCCC institutions has partnered with classroom teachers and administrators in professional development programs over many years. The CWCCC program will anchor the work that has been started in each community through a focus on rural education with the teaching of writing as a springboard. Goals include engaging administrators and teachers as they develop effective reading and writing instructional practices to equip students with college- and career-ready skills; promoting students’ success in critical thinking, test scores, college applications, and entry into careers; and preserving the cultural heritage of rural communities.

Arkansas

CWCCC plans to work in underserved areas of the state—especially the Arkansas Delta—through programs such as intensive professional development with teachers. Community development initiatives and programs, such as the collection of oral history, will involve teachers and students.

Kentucky

CWCCC will work in classrooms with new and early career teachers in the Kentucky Highlands Promise Zone to improve college- and career-readiness in high-needs schools. Working with dual credit English faculty, CWCCC will support teachers in completing program requirements to become certified dual credit teachers. Teen writing camps and school-year campus visits will focus on acclimating students to post-high school opportunities and supporting students in seeking scholarships and college access.

Instructor and Director, Louisville Writing Project
College of Education and Human Development
University of Louisville
1905 South 1st Street
Louisville, KY 40292
(502) 852-4544jean.wolph@louisville.edu

Mississippi

CWCCC work will be in high-need schools that often have high teacher turnover rates—sometimes 60-70%. Therefore, the focus will be with new teachers in the Mississippi Delta. Most schools in this area have student populations reporting a 90-100% free and reduced lunch rate. The Teaching Students in Poverty program will be supported by partners of the McLean Institute and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. Focus counties will include Coahoma, Panola, Tallahatchie, Bolivar, Sunflower, Yalobusha, and Tunica.

Missouri

The Center will work in the highly impoverished southern Ozarks region and in the state’s Delta Regional Authority areas in south-central and southeastern Missouri. The work will focus on career technical educators and students in these fields (e.g., agriculture, welding, family and consumer sciences, construction).

Director, Center for Writing in College, Career, and Community
Missouri State University
901 South National Avenue
Springfield, MO 65897
(417) 836-6300kfranklin@missouristate.edu

South Carolina

CWCCC plans to focus primarily in high-need areas of the South Carolina Rural Promise Zone and Lowcountry districts along the I-95 corridor. These rural areas share many systemic problems including recruiting and retaining qualified teachers. In addition, the state has benefited greatly by the numerous corporations that have established production facilities in the Lowcountry, and one goal of this work is to discover ways to sustain rural communities and provide an educated workforce for both small and large businesses.